The present invention is directed to communications systems and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for forwarding calls and providing optional notification of forwarded calls.
Telephones, both mobile and land based, are a frequently used communications tool of modern society. While basic telephone service has remained generally unchanged in terms of its features for years, there is an ever increasing demand for new telephone services.
The demand for new telephone services, and telephone services which are easier to manage, is prompted by a desire to render telephones easier to use and/or to make them more efficient communication tools. The demand for new telephone services is also fueled by the desire of individual telephone companies to distinguish the services they offer from those of their competitors; create new revenue sources; and/or expand existing revenue sources.
Examples of telephone services which have been available for a relatively long period of time include telephone switch based call forwarding services. Switch based call forwarding services allow a user to forward calls directed to a first telephone number to a second telephone. Switch based call forwarding may be implemented for all calls directed to the first number or for only those calls which go unanswered for a predetermined period of time.
In known switch based call forwarding systems, the telephone switch includes the control logic which is used to determine when and to where a call is to be forwarded. In such systems, control of the telephone switch by a call forwarding service user, e.g., to enable/disable call forwarding, is normally achieved through the use of a touch tone phone and DTMF input or through a service order created by telephone company personnel.
In addition to a call forwarding service, customers may subscribe to voice mail, voice dialing, and a wide range of other telephone services. As the number of services to which a telephone user subscribes increases, the number of features which a subscriber and the telephone company needs to be able to control also increases. The limited nature of a telephone interface, e.g., speech and DTMF input, can make it difficult for an individual who subscribes to several telephone services to manage those services via the customary telephone/DTMF control interface.
In order to provide enhanced telephone services, many telephone companies now implement a telephone communications network as an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) which has made it easier to provide a wide array of previously unavailable voice grade telephone service features. In addition to new services, AIN may be used to implement services which appear to a user to be similar to known services which were implemented in the past solely using telephone switch logic located internal to the telephone switch.
In an AIN system, signal switching points (SSPs), detect one of a number of call processing events identified as AIN xe2x80x9ctriggersxe2x80x9d. SSPs may be implemented as central office telephone switches. An SSP which detects a trigger suspends processing of the call which activated the trigger, compiles a call data message and forwards that message via a common channel interoffice signaling (CCIS) link to a database system, such as a Service Control Point (SCP). The SCP may be implemented as part of an integrated service control point (ISCP). If needed, the SCP can instruct the central office (SSP) at which the AIN trigger was activated to obtain and forward additional information, e.g., information relating to the call. Once sufficient information about the call has reached the ISCP, the ISCP accesses stored call processing information or records (CPRS) to generate from the received message data, a call control message. The call control message is then used to instruct the central office on how to process the call which activated the AIN trigger. As part of the call control message, an ISCP can instruct the central office to send the call to an outside resource, such as an intelligent peripheral (IP) using a send to outside resource (STOR) instruction. IPs are frequently coupled to SSPs to provide message announcement capabilities, voice recognition capabilities and other functionality which is not normally provided by the central office. The control message is normally communicated from the ISCP to the SSP handling the call via the CCIS link. Once received, the SCP completes the call in accordance with the instructions received in the control message.
The current AIN standard is described in Bellcore document GR-1298-CORE, AINGR: Switching Systems, Issue 5, (November 1999). The current AIN standard supports, as part of the control functionality provided by the SCP, a next event list. The next event list includes a list of actions to be performed in a sequential order, e.g., in response to the occurrence of certain conditions such as busy and no answer conditions. Thus, a message from an SSP indicating that a call encountered a busy condition or was not answered in a predetermined amount of time may be used to trigger an SCP to proceed to the next entry in a next event list.
One service which can be implemented with AIN functionality is Wide Area Centrex. Centrex takes a group of normal telephone lines and provides call processing to add business features to the otherwise standard telephone lines. For example, Centrex adds intercom capabilities to the lines of a specified business group so that a business customer can dial other stations within the same group, e.g., lines belonging to the same company, using extension numbers such as a two, three, or four digit numbers, instead of the full telephone number associated with each called line. Other examples of Centrex service features include call transfer between users at different stations of a business group and a number of varieties of call forwarding. Thus, Centrex adds a bundle of business features on top of standard telephone line features without requiring special equipment, e.g., a private branch exchange (PBX) at the customer""s premises. U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,571, which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference, describes in detail a Wide Area Centrex system implemented using AIN techniques.
In an attempt to make services provided using AIN techniques easier to manage, management of AIN services via a personal computer and the Internet have been suggested. U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,016, which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference, describes a system wherein a web page type interface is provided. The interface allows a subscriber access, via the Internet, to control and reporting functionalities of an AIN system.
Call forwarding services are one of the more commonly used telephone services. While basic call forwarding service is relatively easy to control, advanced call forwarding services, e.g., forward on busy, follow me, and other call forwarding services which involve conditional call forwarding or sequential call forwarding to multiple telephone numbers can be difficult to manage via a telephone. Accordingly, there is a need for methods and apparatus which make telephone call forwarding services easier to manage.
Another problem with call forwarding services is that users often forget to disable call forwarding when they return to the location from which they were having their. calls forwarded. Accordingly there is also a need for notifying call forwarding subscribers when a call is being forwarded. When a subscriber can select from several call forwarding services to be used at any given time, e.g., general call forwarding, forward to voice mail, and selective call forwarding, it is also desirable that the subscriber be notified of the type of call forwarding being implemented in addition to being notified that a call is being forwarded.
The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for providing call forwarding services and for providing optional notification of forwarded calls.
The call forwarding techniques of the present invention are implemented using AIN next event list functionality. In accordance with the present invention, call processing records, including a next event list, are generated and stored in an SCP for each call forwarding service subscriber.
By using an SCP and AIN next event list functionality to provide call forwarding services, subscriber control over such services is facilitated as compared to switch based call forwarding implementations. This is because user control over switch based functionality is somewhat limited in modern telephone systems. In accordance with the present invention, subscribers are allowed to update their call forwarding service information stored at, e.g., a service control point, by calling an interactive voice response system or via a computer and the Internet.
In accordance with the present invention, call forwarding service subscribers are provided the opportunity to be informed of forwarded calls through the use of a distinctive ring, e.g., a short ring sometimes called a Ping-Ring. The distinctive ring may be implemented by using AIN next event list functionality to connect an incoming call for a few seconds to the called line before being forwarded to the telephone number selected by the customer. This has the effect of causing the subscriber""s line to ring briefly, e.g., less than a full ring, before being forwarded.
In another implementation, the SCP responsible for controlling forwarding of a call sends a message to the telephone switch to which the subscriber""s phone is connected to cause the telephone to produce one of a plurality of distinctive rings. In addition, the SCP causes the call to be forwarded to a telephone number indicated by the subscriber.
The communications system of the present invention through the use of call processing records and the next event list of modern AIN systems, supports a wide range of call forwarding services. These services include call forwarding of all calls (CFOAC) with or without notification of a forwarded call, call forwarding on busy (CFOB), call forwarding on no answer (CFONA), selective call forwarding (SCF) with or without notification of a forwarded call, and follow me (FM) services.
A voice mail service can be implemented in accordance with the present invention by designating the telephone number of a voice mailbox as the number to which a call is to be forwarded, e.g., on a no answer condition.
When a subscriber subscribes to multiple call forwarding services, different distinctive rings may be used to notify the subscriber of a call forwarded by each of the various call forwarding services. For example, a subscriber may be notified of a call forwarded by a selective call forwarding service through the use of a first distinctive ring and notified of a call forwarded by the follow-me service through the use of a second distinctive ring. In addition, in the case of selective call forwarding, it is possible to use different notification rings to notify a subscriber of calls forwarded to different destination numbers. For example, a subscriber may be informed of calls forwarded to voice mail via a first short distinctive ring and of calls forwarded to his/her secretary via a second short distinctive ring which is readily distinguishable from the first short ring.
In accordance with one feature of the present invention, a subscriber is allowed to set the amount of time, e.g. expressed in terms of a number of rings, which are allowed to occur before a call is forwarded in accordance with a forward on no answer call forwarding service or follow-me service of the present invention. The time information may be stored at the SCP as part of the customer""s CPR.
In accordance with another feature of the present invention, customers are provided an easy way to enable/disable call forwarding service from the subscriber""s phone, i.e., the phone for which call forwarding service is provided. In accordance with this feature, a subscriber can call an intelligent peripheral device used to control call forwarding service from his/her phone. The subscriber""s phone number is identified using automatic number identification (ANI) techniques and the subscriber""s CPR is accessed. If call forwarding is enabled on the subscriber""s phone, the subscriber can disable call forwarding by simply pressing a first code, e.g. *73. This causes the subscriber""s CPR, and/or TAT trigger set on the subscriber""s line, to be modified so that call forwarding will be disabled.
If call forwarding is disabled on the subscriber""s phone, but was previously used, the subscriber can enable call forwarding to the last number to which calls were forwarded by simply pressing *72. This causes the subscriber""s CPR, and/or TAT trigger on the subscriber""s line, to be modified so that call forwarding will be enabled. This feature is made possible by the fact that the CPR, unlike a telephone switch, stores the previously used call forwarding number even after call forwarding is deactivated.
Various additional features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description which follows.